Positive result in the Teaching Excellence Framework

Our University has been awarded silver status in the Government’s Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF)

This award defines Warwick as a university that “consistently exceeds rigorous national quality requirements for UK higher education” and achieves “excellent outcomes for its students…with an institutional culture that facilitates, recognises and rewards excellent teaching”.

Commenting on the result, Stuart Croft said “A Warwick education is at the forefront of excellence in national and international education agendas and our students are highly talented. I’m committed to continuing to work in partnership with our students and staff to maintain and further enhance the quality and distinctiveness of education at Warwick”.

The result will be used alongside the data we have from other rankings, the Institutional Teaching and Learning Review (ITLR) and student feedback to continue to drive further enhancements to the teaching and learning experience at Warwick under the overarching education strategy. This will provide direction and coordination across key institutional priorities in internationalisation, interdisciplinarity, undergraduate research and disciplinary excellence.

Find out more

Hear from Gwen van der Velden, Academic Director of the Warwick International Higher Education Academy as she explains what makes the education experience at Warwick special and reflects on the Teaching Excellence Framework.

TEF: background

The TEF is a scheme between the Government and HEFCE to encourage excellent teaching in universities and colleges. It is intended to help students choose where to study, by providing clear information about teaching provision and student outcomes. At the moment, the TEF only applies to England and only to undergraduate degrees.

There are three assessment criteria:

Teaching Quality

Learning Environment

Student Outcomes and Learning Gain

These are assessed through 6 core metrics and a 15 page Provider Submission. The metrics are based on scores from:

Student satisfaction using the teaching on course, assessment and feedback and academic support scales from the National Student Survey

Retention using HESA UK Performance Indicators

Proportion in employment or further study using 6 month DLHE

The TEF will allow universities and colleges to increase their tuition fees, in line with inflation, if they have passed its baseline quality standard. For 2017, this means maximum fees will be £9,250 a year.

As TEF is voluntary, some institutions have chosen not to participate. TEF can more accurately be described as a tool to identify the institutions performing well against expectations for their particular student intake and does not explain high quality teaching, student satisfaction or teaching styles and student experience like traditional league tables do. It is up to the separate newspapers who run existing league tables to decide if they want to use TEF rankings in their own calculations.

The Government has announced an independent review of the TEF’s use of statistics before 2020.